‘Teachers’ thinking and deciding fast and slow: a systems framework application’

This theoretical paper applies Kahneman’s (2011) Systems framework to teaching and teacher education. This framework conceptualises thinking in two forms: System 1 and System 2. System 1, thinking fast, relies on feelings, emotions, biases, and intuitions, acting as the autopilot in most routine decision-making, whereas System 2, thinking slow, is deliberate, measured, and reflective. We use the Systems framework to elucidate teachers’ habits of mind and habits of action in the dynamic and unpredictable classroom context. We have organised the ensuing discussion around four areas in which System 1 and System 2 thinking have been distinguished. Specifically, we contrast these systems based on the mental engagement ascribed to each; key mechanisms upon which they operate; the capacity and level of cognition they require; and primary procedures they entail. We regard this framework as a catalyst for pedagogical reappraisal. We explore systematic patterns in the decisions educators make and consider conditions that may trigger more expedient thinking. We then offer guiding principles that can lead to new habits of mind and action. Finally, we discuss how the Systems framework can be enriched and expanded by considering sociocultural, socioemotional, situated, and contextual factors.